Psy 348 – Overview notes:  major themes in cognition

Primacy of “mind” & mind/body dualism

 Plato – Parable of the cave; ideal forms versus mere physical imitations

  Judeo-Christian tenet

            “Spirit” is primary, eternal, “good”

             “Body” is secondary, temporary, “evil”

 Descartes – mind is separate from body & takes precedence

                         Mind is eternal, spiritual, the means to truth via reason

                         Body is temporary, unreliable; emotion is part of body, not part of mind

                         Hence empirical info is inferior to reason

 C.f., G. Hopkins:

C.f., Buber’s “I & Thou” meditation:

           “To man the world is twofold, in accordance with his twofold attitude.”

            [I /Thou spoken as a unit – When a person says “Thou,” “I” intrinsically appears too.

             This is always spoken with the fullness of one’s being.  It's a singularity, not dual.

              I – It also spoken as a unit; when a person says “It,” “I” intrinsically appears too. 

              But this is never spoken with the fullness of one’s being, and it's always dual.

              Deliberate attempts to achieve an I-Thou moment objectifies the moment and makes it I-It.
              We can only be available to the possibility of I-Thou moments, to achieve real dialogue.
               It can't be described. When you have it, you know it.
               Buber maintains that it’s possible to have an I-Thou relationship with other people, with the
               world, and the objects in it as well.]

Summary:  Contemporary cognitive psychology is deeply mentalistic and dualistic,
paying scant regard to the role of physical or social factors in cognitive activities.

Primacy of rational thinking versus emotion/feeling

  Consider Plato & Descartes, who insist on reason as the royal road to truth
        Strong opponent:  the Christian church, which has traditionally emphasized the primacy of "faith"
  Cognitive texts often have entire chapters devoted to logic & reason, but no mention of emotion or feeling   
      E.g., Goldstein discusses emotion briefly in his chapter on reasoning, but not at all in the perception,

      attention, knowledge, or problem-solving chapters

 C.f., REBT, which focuses on using rational processes to counter irrational beliefs & unhealthy emotions:

            Emotions themselves are treated as secondary effects arising from healthy or unhealthy           

            thoughts/beliefs

Summary:  Contemporary cognitive psychology reifies rational thinking, with only the briefest acknowledgement

of emotional effects on cognitive activity.  Even when emotion is addressed, it is usually treated in terms of

undesirable effects on clear & effective thinking (c.f. Goldstein re: emotion X decision-making).  

Mechanistic versus organic

Underlying assumption in psychology– mind and body are “mechanical”; so nix to “spirit,” “life force”

            C.f., Thomas Hobbes:  human as entirely mechanical – both mentally & physically

            C.f., Newton’s famous mechanistic billiard-ball analogy

    Hence ¯ appreciation of “things” as having “value” other than sheer material value

            C.f., Morris’ Reenchantment of the World – Newton’s premises led to loss of “spiritual/magical”
                        from environment, hence devaluing of life, etc., in contemporary Western cultures
                        C.f., the Holocaust, the fire bombing of Dresden, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, 9-11, response
                        to Katrina, etc . . .

             C.f., biography of J.B. Watson:  The Mechanical Man

Organic -- gushy, squishy, sloshy, continuous, analog, personal, emotional . . .

– versus –

Mechanistic -- discrete, rigid, modular, digital, impersonal, rational . . .

Gestalt psychology – “mental” is holistic – it’s far more that just a mechanical summation of parts

            Underlying assumption – mechanical, but with strong organic overtones

            The emphasis on “holism” re-opened the door to psyche as life rather than machine

            Note that art theorists and practicing artists have long taken Gestalt far more seriously than have

            cognitive psychologists
According to Erhard Doubrawa, the teachings of Martin Buber (1878 - 1965) on the I-Thou
relationship have been the single most important influence on Gestalt therapy.

Summary:  Contemporary cognitive psych, like most of the rest of western psychology, heavily emphasizes
mechanistic descriptors & assumptions, after giving a bow to Gestalt holism regarding perception taken in isolation.

Structure versus process

Structuralism – Wundt, Titchener – focus on the structures of the mind

            I.e., Analyze a sensation into its “parts” via introspection then re-assemble (synthesize) them

Functionalism – James – focus on functions of mental processes (not structures)

Pragmatism – James, Dewey – and furthermore, focus on that which has practical benefit to humans

Associationism – Aristotle, Locke – perceptions & ideas are associated to form thoughts, memories,  etc.

            Aristotle’s “principles of association” – contiguity, similarity, etc.

            Locke – tabula rasa – that “blank mind” has to be filled somehow, so associations between

                        sensations & rudimentary ideations play a major role in mental growth

            C.f., Freud’s early stages of development & their subsequent effects on later life

            Law of effect – Thorndike – stupendous insight about learning a particular behavior
 

Behaviorism – Thorndike, Watson, Pavlov, Skinner – observable behaviors & laws of learning . . .

       “Mind” dismissed by Watson & Skinner as metaphorical nicety of no relevance to scientific psychology.

        They do have something of a point – much of behavior can be successfully predicted without resorting
         to “mind.”  However, some things have thus far resisted a strict behavioral analysis . . .

Summary: Contemporary cognitive psychology focuses mainly on hypothetical mental structures & processes,
usually with the computer processor as the standard metaphor for what the mind must be like.  Associationism
is given a bow, especially regarding perception & memory, while Behaviorism is almost completely dismissed

as irrelevant.